Last week I encouraged pastors to read through the entire Bible at least once a year. One of your best friends in such an endeavor will be a Bible reading plan. Ministers of the word must plan to read the word.

The same thing goes with that other half of pastoral ministry: prayer.

IN NEED OF A PLANNED TIME

Carson makes this point with typical verve in A Call to Spiritual Reformation when he writes,

Much praying is not done because we do not plan to pray. We do not drift into spiritual life; we do not drift into disciplined prayer. We will not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray. That means we must self-consciously set aside time to do nothing but pray.

Pastor, do you have such set aside time?

Carson’s quote reveals the first part of planning to pray: our schedule must include regular times devoted to nothing but prayer. If that is a universal rule of wisdom, the uniqueness then comes in when each pastor looks at his own schedule and discerns when such times are right. My recommendation is to schedule three blocks of time per day – morning, afternoon, and evening – with one devoted to extended prayer. I personally find I am best suited for extended prayer in the afternoon.

IN NEED OF A PLANNED LIST

To ensure that set aside time is productive the ordinary pastor will need a prayer list. Thus, the second part of planning to pray is: our devoted prayer times will need a prayer list to protect faithfulness in the various areas of biblical prayer.We all know how hard this is. Some major in confession, others intercession, yet others thanksgiving, and oh so many more in simple petition. But we want to – and need to – do all those things everyday! A straightforward list is necessary here. Everyone’s system will be different, but you will need a system. I encourage pastors to have a list with specific categories. Here are the categories I typically pray through:

• Personal
• Family
• Pastoral Ministry
• Church Life
• Intercession

I then take those categories and subdivide them into areas of praise/thanksgiving, confession, petition, and intercession. As much as possible I try to update these lists at least once a week. That way, whenever I enter the closet for an extended time of prayer I am never short of items to focus my attention. In fact, if you are good with updating your list and categories I think you will soon figure out how easy it is to pray in an extended manner. And when you reach that point you are heading in the right direction.

So make a a plan and get to praying this day . . . and don’t forget your church directory!